After having two successful days of birding in Rishyap, we started for Kolakham. Kolakham was our dream destination for a long time but we couldn’t manage to plan to go there in the last few years just because of the many other scheduled tours and official engagements. We went there in the end of April in a birdwatching trip. In this article I will describe how we did birdwatching and which is supposed to be the Best Homestay in Kolakham in terms of budget, location and food quality.
How to Reach to Kolakham from Lava or Rishyap
We took a cab from the local syndicate of Rishyap to go to Kolakham. It took around 1600 rupees to drop us just at the gate of Casero Kolakham of Kolakham.
You always have to go to Kolakham from Rishyap via Lava. So you can take any syndicate car from Lava also. From Rishyap, if you want to go back home, you can just take the syndicate car or any pick up and drop service from the hotel where you stay for 2 days.
How to Book the Best Homestay in Kolakham – Casero Kolakham
We booked Casero Kolakham of Kolakham for 2 days, 2 months ago after having a lot of research from Google. We generally do some research on Google for these hotels before booking based on their reviews on their room cleanliness, service quality, food quality, the exact location of this property, and many other things. Hotel Casero Kolakham of Kolakham was at the top of the Google review list. They also had many pictures of their property there from where we were convinced that this could be the right choice for us depending on the location as well as the cost.
The whole location is just beside the Neora Valley jungle which is one of the dream destinations of bird watchers. If you want to go from Rishyap to Kolakham you will have to cross a forest Gate from where you can see a diversion. There is one way going upwards which is the Neora Valley jungle. If you want to visit Neora Valley jungle for bird watching then you have to take permission from that Gate with some tickets. We were not going in that direction. We were going to the other road downwards which was also an amazing journey through the Jungle of Neora Valley. We wouldn’t recommend you to walk through this jungle all alone without taking a car or guide because there are wild animals like bears coming out anytime to surprise you. Within an hour or so we reached our destination. Believe it or not, to our surprise we found that this homestay is also way more beautiful than we saw in the Google reviews.
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Room type and condition of the Best Homestay in Kolakham – Casero Kolakham
We reached there at around noon. So once we checked into the room, we planned and ordered the food for lunch to save some time for bird watching in the second half of that day. We also had a plan to take some photographs of this homestay Casero Kolakham of Kolakham so that we can show you the beautiful rooms and their amenities.
For the first day we got a nice clean room with an attached bathroom on the ground floor and the next day it is even better a duplex room on the first floor. We were very curious about the duplex room to book for both days as the price is reasonable but it was not available for the first day. Eventually, we got refreshed and completed our lunch as early as possible, and went for a walk through the nearby bushes and trails.
Birdwatching in Kolakham
It was a nice concrete road through the village where there is no disturbance from heavy vehicles or villagers. We got only a few school students coming back from their nearby schools. They were as usual very curious to see that we were looking for birds and insects in the bushes. They were surprised to see that we are getting excited to find some beautiful butterflies or birds in the trees nearby.
They also enjoyed the moment and pointed out a few common birds from the trees like Long Tailed Shrike, Green-backed Tit, etc. It was not so fruitful that day as the light condition was a little bit poor and we were looking for birds here and there in the roadside bushes although we got around 10 birds species that day among which we got Mountain Hawk Eagle, drongos with catch, call of Kalij Pheasant, and Hill Patridge, etc. which compensated our effort. Since we came back from a higher altitude to a lower altitude we have started seeing some beautiful butterflies and flowering plants which may be their host plants for them.
Night at Kolakham
Going back to the homestay Casero Kolakham of Kolakham we took some rest and in the evening our caretaker came with some delicious snacks like chicken pakoras and tea. It was a hot day throughout the journey from Rishyap and eventually, the sky became dark with full of clouds. We enjoyed rain for 1 hour which helped to reduce the temperature for that night. One more important thing I noticed here in this homestay Casero Kolakham of Kolakham is their generator system when there was a power cut. So overall we had no issues when there was no power due to the heavy rain for one or two hours.
At night we preferred roti and chicken for dinner and our homestay owner daju (Nepali word for brother) helped us with hot drinking water every time.
Kolakham, The Birder’s Paradise
We expected a very clean sky the next day early morning because of the rain. So we were prepared to wake up early in the morning and get ready with some snacks in our pockets. Though we ordered breakfast in the homestay, we were not sure when we may come back to the hotel after a long bird-watching session. So it is always recommended to keep some snacks and drinking water in your bag so that you can keep your body hydrated. Also if you think the weather may change and it may rain within a few hours you must have a cover for your gear because you can be drenched in rain but your gear cannot. This day was the most successful day of our stay here because we had a nice cool session without any disturbance besides the jungle area of Neora Valley jungle.
We found a good number of birds here calling from different branches of the canopies. Our target species were spotted Elachura, Small or Large Niltava, Sikkim Treecreeper, Striated Bulbul, Blue-winged Minla, and many more among which we got a large number of species that day. The whole day we did a lot of bird watching there almost near the Kolbong village check post. From this check post if you want to go to Kolbong village then you need to get permission and an entry ticket from there. We didn’t go to the village but we tried all around in the roadside bushes and found many interesting species which we didn’t get before. This is called ‘lifer’ in our bird-watching terms. We frequently went to those areas that day a few times and every time we got a couple of new species like Striated Bulbul, Minivets in the flock, Sunbirds, and so on.
Duplex Room in the Best Homestay in Kolakham – Casero Kolakham
Near about 1 p.m we came back to our homestay We were served hot and delicious foods for lunch and dinner as usual like rice, local vegetables, omelet, chicken, homemade jam, potato chips, etc.
We also got a few nice and important lifers of butterflies like Dusky Labyrinth, Yellow Coster, Striped Punch, etc. In between the frequent visits to the jungle area that day, we also changed the room to the duplex room on the first floor.
This was so nice and well decorated that we can’t forget that for a long time. There is a staircase inside the room and you will get a small room in the upper berth of that room. Our child enjoyed there a lot with this room arrangements and daju stretched his hand that day to change the room and move the luggage. Overall, it was a surprise for us when we saw that the syndicate is just near the Casero Kolakham hotel and we easily booked our car to go to Kalimpong the next day.
Birds of Kolakham
| Kalij Pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos) |
| Mountain Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus nipalensis) |
| Long-tailed Shrike (tricolor/longicaudatus) (Lanius schach tricolor/longicaudatus) |
| Green-backed Tit (Parus monticolus) |
| Striated Bulbul (Pycnonotus striatus) |
| Rufous Sibia (Heterophasia capistrata) |
| Oriental Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia orientalis) |
| Barred Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia unchall) |
| Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus) |
| Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) |
| Scarlet Minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus) |
| Blue-winged Minla (Actinodura cyanouroptera) |
| Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) |
| Sikkim Treecreeper (Certhia discolor) |
| Spotted Elachura (Elachura formosa) |
| Large Niltava (Niltava grandis) |
| Small Niltava (Niltava macgrigoriae) |
| Green-tailed Sunbird (Aethopyga nipalensis) |
| Russet Sparrow (Passer cinnamomeus) |
| White-capped Redstart (Phoenicurus leucocephalus) |
| White-collared Blackbird (Turdus albocinctus) |
| Rufous-vented Yuhina (Yuhina occipitalis) |
| Yellow-billed Blue-Magpie (Urocissa flavirostris) |
| Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) |
| Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) |
| Ashy Drongo (Dicrurus leucophaeus) |
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